Study Abroad

InterAction Nepal | Participatory Design + Community Development + Global Health
Spring 2025

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

In winter quarter, MLA students should take a Research Methods course as this will not be taught in Nepal and students must take a course prior to autumn quarter of their final year.

*If you would like LARCH 600 to fulfill a different degree requirement, please speak with Julie P + Jennie no later than Week 4 of 2024.  You will be required to complete a LARCH 600 form no later than Week 6 of winter 2024.

Information Sessions:
Thursday, Oct. 24th, 6:00 pm PDT
Wednesday, Oct. 30th, 6:00pm PDT
Tuesday, Nov. 5th, 6:00pm PST

Zoom Link:
Recorded Info Session

Program Brochure / Applications:
Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: Extended to January 8, 2024*

*Applications submitted by November 15th will be given preferred consideration. Applications submitted after November 15th will be considered on a rolling basis, if space is still available.

In collaboration with students and faculty from HDK-Steneby we will partner with the communities of Dals Langed, Sweden to design and build a floating “element” to be transported through the canal/lake system and in the process create deeper relationships between the two towns/countries. This project builds off work done in 2024 where temporary prototypes of a performance/exhibition space and a floating gathering/firepit were created to test ideas.  In this program we will focus on creating a permanent floating feature that unifies. The site we will be working on is in the village of Dals Langed, a small village on a lake and in the middle of the extensive Dals Langed canal system, considered a beau colic cultural feature within Sweden.

The academic goals are to:

· Engage in and learn skills of community collaboration.

· Improve design skills in an intensive and short design process.

· Gain a deeper perspective on the relationship between design and implementation.

· Gain skills in building and crafting.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions:
Tuesday, Jan. 7th at 12:00 pm PST
Monday, Jan. 13th at 12:00 pm PST
Thursday, Jan. 17th at 9:00 am PST 

Zoom Link

Program / Application Information: Link to UW study abroad application portal here

Applications Due: Priority Deadline is January 31st, 2025

Urban Development and Human and Ecological Health in the Amazon Rainforest
Understanding the impact of urbanization on health and ecosystems using interdisciplinary approaches

The program begins with excursions to one of the last primary forest ecosystems in the Amazon Rainforest to explore unique flora, fauna, and environments
with very little human presence. The students will then visit new peri-urban nodes near the expanding city of Iquitos to understand social, environmental, and health aspects related to urban development. Our group will then visit projects in the city of Iquitos that are leading efforts to promote sustainable healthy urban development and learn tools to assess urban health.

Students will examine questions including: what are the social, political, and environmental drivers and implications of rural to urban migration? What are the socio-cultural, spatial, and material characteristics of Iquitos and their impacts on health? What are the everyday conditions of life for people and animals in the Peruvian Amazon? How might community-based participatory action and community interventions in the built environment serve as agents of positive change in under-served communities?

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled

Information Sessions: Early 2025 (TBD)

Zoom Link: Upcoming

Program / Application Information: Upcoming

Applications Due: Early 2025 (TBD)

More info coming soon

More info coming soon

More info coming soon

Chiba University, Japan

The College of Built Environments has an ongoing exchange relationship with Faculty of Horticulture at Chiba University in Japan. Reach out to the advisers for more information.

National University of Singapore

UW is a partner institution with the National University of Singapore (NUS). NUS’s College of Design and Engineering offers both BLA and MLA accredited programs. Reach out to the advisers for more information.

ScanDesign Programs

Supported by the ScanDesign Foundation, the College of Built Environments offers a series of programs that directly involve architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design students in the work of Gehl Architects, an internationally renowned leader in environmentally sensitive design, and use both Copenhagen and Seattle as sites for learning. These programs give students the opportunity to see and study examples of Denmark’s innovative approach to sustainability firsthand and then give them an opportunity to apply what they have learned in Seattle.

To find out more, visit: http://scandesign.be.uw.edu/

Valle Scholarship and Exchange

Unparalleled in the United States, the Valle Scholarship and Scandinavian Exchange Program has a dual mission: (1) To promote and fund the exchange of graduate students between the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington and programs in the Nordic countries. (2) To support outstanding graduate students in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Built Environments.

To find out more, visit http://www.engr.washington.edu/valle/

InterAction Nepal | Design, Development, Global Health
Spring 2024

InterAction Nepal is an immersive, interdisciplinary study abroad program offered with the support of the UW Department of Landscape Architecture and the Nepal Studies Initiative. The program challenges students to delve into contemporary issues surrounding development in the Kathmandu Valley and respond to them at a local scale through community-based participatory design, project implementation and assessment. UW students work with local students and residents of an underserved community to design and construct a small-scale intervention in community infrastructure and evaluate project impacts on human and environmental health. They also have the opportunity to pursue their own research interests through independent study.

Program activities include lectures and discussions, organizational site visits, field trips within and outside the Kathmandu Valley, community meetings/workshops and hands-on design and construction. InterAction Nepal’s partners include community members, municipal representatives, non-profit organizations, social enterprises and academic institutions.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

In winter quarter, MLA students should take a Research Methods course as this will not be taught in Nepal and students must take a course prior to autumn quarter of their final year.

*If you would like LARCH 600 to fulfill a different degree requirement, please speak with Julie P + Jennie no later than Week 4 of 2024.  You will be required to complete a LARCH 600 form no later than Week 6 of winter 2024.

Information Sessions:

Wednesday, November 1st, 5:30-6:30PM PT
Tuesday, November 7th, 5:30-6:30PM PT

Zoom Link:
https://washington.zoom.us/j/96636848570 

Program Brochure / Applications:
Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: Extended to January 8, 2024*

*Applications submitted by November 15th will be given preferred consideration. Applications submitted after November 15th will be considered on a rolling basis, if space is still available.

Landscape Architecture Sweden: Floating Village Prototyping Studio  Summer 2024

In this program we will design and build prototypes for a floating village and will collaborate with students and faculty from Stenby School of Craft in the town of Dals Langed, Sweden. Students will gain skills in design, construction and field sketching and learn about Sweden on field trips to Stockholm and Gothenburg and explore this idyllic area in Southern Sweden

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions: 

Tuesday, November 28th, 9:30 am PST
Tuesday, December 5th, 9:30 am PST
Thursday December 14th, 9:30 a PST

Zoom Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/9259088740

Program / Application Information

Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: January 31, 2024

Questions? Daniel Winterbottom (nina@u.washington.edu)

Landscape Architecture/Global Health Peru: Urban Development & Human & Ecological Health in the Amazon Rainforest – Summer B Term 2024

Iquitos, a city in the Amazon Rainforest, is the fifth largest city in Peru with 0.5 million people. The organically formed urban development has exacerbated poverty levels and social inequity with profound implications to quality of life, health and well-being and ecological resilience.

This program is offered by the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Global Health. The program will immerse students in contemporary interdisciplinary dialogue surrounding intersections between urban design, global health and ecology in the Amazon ecosystem. Students will study pristine rainforest ecosystems and compare to new periurban nodes and mature urban developments that are coming face-to-face with social, ecological and health crises at local and global scales. Students will also visit projects and initiatives leading efforts aimed at mitigating these problems and will apply tools to research, document and assess the built and natural environments.

This program will include three general areas of study – 1) Social, Cultural and Ecological Context 2) Community Based Participatory Action and Community Intervention 3) Health and Built Environment Impact Research and Intervention Assessment – and will place particular emphasis on the assessment of a built environment intervention and evaluating the impacts on human and environmental health.

The program will include lectures and discussions, site visits, field trips, community workshops, and field assessments. Students will examine questions such as: What are the social, political and environmental drivers and implications of rural-urban migration? What are the socio-cultural, spatial and material characteristics of Iquitos’ public spaces and their impacts on health? What are the conditions of life for people and animals in the Peruvian Amazon like? How might community based participatory action and community interventions in the built environment serve as agents of positive change?

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Program / Application Information
Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: January 31, 2024

Questions? Coco Alarcon (cocoa84@uw.edu) or Rebeca Bachman (rbachman@uw.edu)

Landscape Architecture Croatia: Designing for the Deaf/Reclaiming Space for Teenagers – Fall 2024

The program will take place in two locations. The first is for the first 5 weeks in Rijeka in the north of Croatia where we will restore a garden created in 2019 for 1 week, develop a master plan/site design for an association for people who are deaf/losing their hearing for 1 week and implement the project for 3 weeks. The second project, located in Sibenik, Croatia, and is located south of Rijeka just north of Split where we will develop landscape designs for a historic fort that has been renovated and where we will stay and create a small pop-up intervention near in or near the fortification and plant trees within the fort. These projects will address the loss of connection and use by the local youth who had used these sites prior to the renovation and social hangout spaces and now feel excluded from them since the changed have been implemented. Both unique environments will be the setting through which students will learn the principles of therapeutic garden design, learn about the history of preservation and exclusion in Croatia and experience the unique culture of these different and fascinating regions of Croatia re-known for its history, food, alternative culture and architecture and cultivated and natural landscapes.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions: 

Thursday, Dec. 7th, 9:30 am PST
Monday, Dec. 18th, 9:30 am PST
Tuesday, Jan. 9th, 9:30 am PST

Program / Application Information:

Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: February 15, 2024

Questions? Daniel Winterbottom (nina@u.washington.edu)

CHID/LARCH Environmental Paris: The Modern Invention of Nature – Fall 2024

From the 18th century through today, Paris has been at the center of European and global re-visioning of nature and of our human relations with it. Scientific, intellectual and political revolutions that began in the later 18th century gave rise to intense debates about both the “nature” of nature and about human beings’ historical and biological place within it. “Environment” (a translation of the German Umgebung ) first began to be used in 1827, a coinage designed to capture the force of this reconceptualization. This program offers students a chance to explore this modern “invention of nature” from three different perspectives-historical-scientific, urban sustainability-public health, and literary-artistic. Each class will focus on a different segment of this trajectory, the late 18th/early 19th century, the later 19th century, and the early to mid-20th century. All three classes will include exploration of Paris’s urban-natural landscapes, its gardens, its museums, and its architecture, as well as literary and visual representations of the shifting imagination of nature. Classes take place at the American Church in Paris, in the very heart of Paris. Students stay with English-speaking families in Paris for the entire duration of the program. Excursions, city walks and research days will be scheduled during the week, leaving ample free time to explore the city and other sites in Europe during weekends.

The program will run October 1 – November 30, 2024 in Paris, France. Remote, on-line class activities will be held through December 6, 2024, to wrap up the program. Students will check out of program housing on November 30 and should arrange for alternate housing if they wish to stay in Paris, or they can travel to other European destinations or return home while they complete final assignments for the program.

This program is co-sponsored by the Department of Comparative Histories of Ideas.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions: 

Program / Application Information:

Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: February 15, 2024

Questions? Laure Heland (heland@uw.edu)

Iquitos, Peru | Development and Human and Ecological Health in the Amazon Rainforest | Early Autumn 2023

Iquitos, a city in the Amazon Rainforest, is the fifth largest city in Peru with 0.5 million people. The organically formed urban development has exacerbated poverty levels and social inequity with profound implications to quality of life, health and well-being, and ecological resilience. This program is offered by the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Global Health. The program will immerse students in contemporary interdisciplinary dialogue surrounding intersections between urban design, global health, and ecology in the Amazon ecosystem. Students will study pristine rainforest ecosystems and compare to new periurban nodes and mature urban developments that are coming face-to-face with social, ecological, and health crises at local and global scales. Students will also visit projects and initiatives leading efforts aimed at mitigating these problems and will apply tools to research, document, and assess built and natural environments. This program will include three general areas of study: 1) Social, Cultural and Ecological Context 2) Community Based Participatory Action and Community Intervention 3) Health and Built Environment Impact Research and Intervention Assessment – and will place particular emphasis on the assessment of a built environment intervention and evaluating the impacts on human and environmental health. The program will include lectures and discussions, site visits, field trips, community workshops, and field assessments. Students will examine questions such as: What are the social, political and environmental drivers and implications of rural-urban migration? What are the socio-cultural, spatial and material characteristics of Iquitos’ public spaces and their impacts on health? What are the conditions of life for people and animals in the Peruvian Amazon? How might community based participatory action and community interventions in the built environment serve as agents of positive change?

Link for more detail/application.

Rome | Autumn 2023
Speculative Histories Imagined Futures

September 27-December 6

Ken Yocom
Associate Professor and Chair, Landscape Architecture

Catherine De Almeida
Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture

This program is open to undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Built Environments.

Program Description
To design for our futures, we must learn from our histories. Set in Rome, Italy, a city that contains a rich tapestry of human and more-than-human histories and environments, this program builds on historical and contemporary foundations to explore speculative urban histories and imagined public futures of the city and its surroundings. Taught by landscape architecture and urban planning scholars in collaboration with local architectural historians (TBD) the program will be based in what is widely considered to be the finest facility operated by an American university in Rome. At its doorstep are incomparable urban landscapes in one of Europe’s most fascinating cities. In addition, this program will explore the urban form and landscapes of other Italian cities, and villa gardens as a laboratory for understanding the magnificent and unique contribution to landscape and urban design and urbanism made by Italian designers in the development of western culture. The program will explore the role of the city and region of Rome through the lens of speculative urban histories in relation to society,
infrastructure, and water.

Process
With a focus on the infrastructures of water in relationship to the processes and patterns of urban development through time, students will consider how a city the size and scale of Rome will address both climate and cultural change in the 21st century. Focusing on the Tiber River and the watershed through which it drains, investigations will frame scales of landscape and site exploring their influence and relationships. Historic narratives of the Italian built environment will begin in Rome and link to Italy and Western Europe. Investigations of representations of the city- its landscape and built environment will build on these foundations. Field trips outside of Rome expand the student’s understanding of Italy and of Rome’s role as its cultural and political center. Lectures and discussion sessions address the geography, history, urban design, and architecture of Rome and Italy. Students also receive instruction in Italian language. The design studio
gives students an opportunity to develop and synthesize their understanding of the Roman context through the development of an in-depth design proposal.

Information Sessions [12-1pm; GLD 312 (Fishbowl)]:
Friday, January 20
Monday, January 30

Please get in touch with Ken or Catherine if you have any questions: kyocom@uw.edu; cdealmei@uw.edu

Denmark/Sweden+ Greenland | Autumn 2023
Scan Design Interdisciplinary Study Tour and Studio 

Study Tour Dates: September 1-17, 2023
(OPTIONAL) GREENLAND TRIP: AUGUST 26 – SEPT 1

Nancy Rottle

This program is open to graduate students in the College of Built Environments.

INFO SESSIONS: Feb 15 & 22 I 12:00-1:00pm
Location: Gould 312 Fishbowl and on Zoom
Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/7999459656

APPLICATIONS DUE FEB 27
Application available online at: https://sdstudio.be.uw.edu/application/

ABOUT THE STUDIO
Architects, Landscape Architects and Planners in Denmark and Sweden are global leaders in holistic sustainability, marrying the highest standards in environmental concerns and human well-being with a design culture infused at all scales. Copenhagen and Malmo are environments of not only resonant history and culture, but also innovative, people-centered design in streets, parks, neighborhoods, art and architecture which contribute to celebrated urban livability while addressing global issues of social justice, biodiversity and climate responsibility.

We will explore these multi-layered, deeply complex and elegantly designed environments during a 2+ week study tour in September, traveling primarily by bicycle for guided tours of inspiring urban design, landscape and architecture projects, especially those that exemplify climate, biodiversity and circularity values.

We’ll visit accomplished design offices to learn how projects are envisioned and accomplished; experience diverse, vibrant neighborhoods and world-class bicycle systems; and enjoy Scandinavian food, art, museums and festivals. Our home base will be Copenhagen, which is the 2023 UNESCO World Capitol for Architecture, featuring events and exhibits such as “Copenhagen in Common,” celebrating the city’s strong tradition of community values and citizen involvement in architecture. Through sketching, photography and media exercises, you will practice tools for perceiving and understanding the urban environment, and document inspiring precedents for your future studio work.

Questions? please email: sdstudio@uw.edu

Paris | Autumn 2023
CHID Paris: Art, Literature, and the Avant-Garde in the City of Light

October 1 – December 1

CHID Paris Program Brochure

When Baron Haussmann reconstructed Paris into the “City of Light” (1852-1870), he produced an urban space that came to represent the Western world’s break with tradition and the emergence of modernity. Modernism, the characteristic style of cutting-edge art and literature in the first half of the 20th century, was born there, which is why avant-garde artists and writers from all over the world would flock to Paris until the beginning of WWII. CHID Paris offers students a unique opportunity to study the emergence of modernity within its original cultural, architectural and historical context. Taken together, the three courses offered by the program trace the interrelationships between Paris and the development of new representational forms such as photography and film, and the impact of modernity on arts such as painting, the novel, poetry and the theater.

Paris contains an unparalleled wealth of modernist and proto-modernist art and an essential part of the program will be visits to museums and sites were we will see the actual paintings, sculptures and artifacts that we will be studying : the Musée du Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée Gustave Moreau, the Musée Rodin, the Musée Marmottan, the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Halle Saint-Pierre, Jean Tinguely’s « Le Cyclop », etc. This will enable us to get a sense of the whole sweep of the development of modern art from Impressionism through the various movements of the 20th century.

Classes take place at the American Church in Paris, in the very heart of Paris. Students stay with English-speaking families in Paris for the entire duration of the program. Excursions, city walks and research days will be scheduled during the week, leaving ample free time to explore the city and other sites in Europe during weekends.

The program will run October 2 – December 3, 2022 in Paris, France. Remote, on-line class activities will be held through December 11, 2022, to wrap up the program.

Traena, Norway | Summer 2023 A term

This Design Build study abroad program created a master plan and implementing some of the features for a new community park that will center more of the community activities at the waters edge. They worked closely with local children and the broader community to hear and respond to their needs, aspirations and desires, seeking their input and exchangingimpressions and ideas in an open and transparent dialogue. Students were asked to create a changing room, a floating platform, play elements, gathering elements shelters from the wind, a firepit and  many others ideas drawn from children that were be considered.

InterAction Nepal | Design, Development, Global Health | Spring 2023

During the spring quarter of 2023, the UW Department of Landscape Architecture sponsored the InterAction Nepal program in collaboration with the Kathmandu University Department of Development Studies. UW and Nepali students from multiple disciplines worked with community members from Bhangal, Budhanilkantha, an informal urban settlement in the Kathmandu Valley destroyed during Nepal’s 2015 earthquakes. They designed and constructed the Bhangal Community Hall  – a multi-functional venue for community meetings, education, income generation and events. See photos and read more about this project here.

Perugia, Italy | Autumn 2022

In this Fall 2022 studio, we will be designing, and constructing, a sensory garden that responds to autistic users and their care provider and family needs.  This class will focus on an in-depth exploration and investigation through design for therapy, community support and ecological health.  The project is in collaboration with the AURAP foundation at the casale Forabosco that is a community initiated and supported organization for those coping with autism and their families.Students will participate in several field trips including Florence, Rome, Sienna and Naples.

Traena, Norway | Summer 2022 A term

Working with the community of Traena, we will develop ideas to design and build a collection of elements including gathering space/outdoor classroom, outdoor kitchen, furniture, seating and other enhancements for a community garden/gathering space associated with the local elementary school and that will be a venue for the music festival and other community events. Using an exploratory building method, we will implement part or all of the design. One focus will be an exploration of how place is defined by culture and how this design can both respect local history and explore the future of Traena’s unique heritage, traditions and sustainability. Students will participate in field trips to Oslo and Trondheim.

Learning Objectives:

The overarching goal of this studio is to continue building your fundamental skills and thinking as designers, and to continue finding your own design voice, values and process.  More specifically, this course is designed to help:

• Develop the basic skills of community participatory design
• Develop competencies in collaborative team work, leadership and team organization
• Exposure to and development of basic skills of site design, construction documentation, and building implementation
• Develop basic competencies in hand drawing
• Explore several drawing medias

Courses Include:

• LARCH 498/598 – Design/Build Studio, 6 credits
• LARCH 411/412 – Landscape Representation, 3 credits

New Zealand | Post-Earthquake Resilience Design for Christchurch | Winter 2020

A Winter 2020 design studio will be offered in Christchurch, New Zealand, with accompanying urban design study tours to Wellington and Auckland led by Professor Nancy Rottle and Architect Paul Olson. The curriculum also incorporates place-based media studies and independent study investigations.  Please attend the information session on Wednesday, May 15, for a glimpse of this past winter’s NZ experience and to hear about plans for winter 2020!

Osaka & Tokyo, Japan | Asian Urbanism Exploration Seminar |Early Autumn 2019

For details, visit the program’s study abroad page.